My TeachSDGs Story began when...

By Soheir Zaki Abel-Fattah, Science Teacher, #TeachSDGs Ambassador, Egypt

My story with the Sustainable Development Goals began when I finished the #TeachSDGs Course by the World's Largest Lesson on the Microsoft Education Community website. After I earned the course badge, I found myself continuing to think about the United Nations 2030 Agenda, the SDGs, and our world.

I thought about people around the world--especially those of developing countries.

People suffering from inequality, hunger, lack of education, diseases, and wars...
Our world suffering from pollution, global warming, and polluted waters...
Countries eager for sustainable cities, sustainable sources of energy, and sustainable economies...

I recognized that my students must know, must learn, and must be aware of all these goals.

It's our only world that we are talking about. Each of us has a role to protect the planet.

For me as a teacher, I deal with the most important ages in society, the young people who will earn their duties in different positions. My main role is to let them learn about the problems that they will face and think of solutions.

After much thought, I decided to take my responsibility to integrate these goals into not only my curriculum, but also into my own life. I decided to spread the awareness of #SDGs for all the people I could reach, not only my students. As I considered that "Quality Education" is the way to reach the other goals and change our world to "The World We Want," I began by creating a collaborative Skype lesson about the impact of Goal 4 on the rest of goals. I used the Skype In Classroom program by Microsoft to introduce my project, The World We Want,  to teachers and students around the world. My first session was with Ms.Priyanka Tomar and her students in India.

​The students prepared a Power Point presentation to show their perspectives about the project. They introduced their thoughts and showcased the right to education in Indian Constitution.

Soon after, my class had a Skype session with Ms.Raihana Haque's students in Bangladesh. They were interested to know about #SDGs and asked me for another Skype session to showcase their work in the project.

The learning and sharing for my students continued in another Skype session this time with Ms.Duhita Parmar's students in India. We had an excellent conversation about world problems, and the students together responded positively about working on the project. ​

I will continue #TeachSDGs as each goal affects our world and provides opportunity to create a better future for us and for our children. It's not so easy to be a good teacher for your students; you must fight for them to let them learn each day to face each challenge.

Soheir Zaki Abel-Fattah is an Expert Science Teacher in Victory College, Alexandria, Egypt. She is a graduate of Alexandria University, Faculty of Science, and has a Master's Degree in Physical Organic Chemistry. She works to achieve excellence in education using advanced technologies in the classroom. As a  MIE and MIE Master Trainer, Soheir embeds Microsoft applications into instruction and lessons. She participanted in the #HumanDifferences Global Project, by Koen Timmers, and this year, she was honored to be chosen as one of the Global Goals Educator Task Force Ambassadors http://www.teachsdgs.org/our-ambassadors.html. You can connect further with Soheir on Twitter at@sou_2022. 

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